Permafrost and Faultlines

When we think of climate change, nowhere is it more evident than in the north. This is a place where the many folks spend a lot of  time outdoors and are affected more by change of the climate and the seasons.

The photo above is a geological permafrost marker (just behind Tara's house) which is monitoring the changes occurring here; and you can see from the following photo why.

                                      

Due to climate warming globally we are seeing a shift in ground that had been, until this time, steady below us. Last June the rift in the earth you see behind me, along with a powerful flow of the river (caused by quick melting ... climate related,also) caused an upheaval for people here because it wiped out the bridge connecting each half of the hamlet. 

Life is like that though ...just when you think that you have it all figured out, the universe throws you another curve; but then I guess that is what makes the journey more important than the destiny. Keeping an eye on your fault lines is what Yoga is all about too. Maintaining a steady practice when the ground is moving under you at times. And how do we adapt?

                                                                              

If you build a house on permafrost it has to float above the ground like this one across the street from us ....all the permanent structures here are raised on steel posts like this one.

This is what the building process looks like in the beginning stages. This is happening just next door to Tara's.

The machinery here is pressing these posts into the permafrost. A sturdy steel structure is then put in place over that, and so it goes. These homes are amazingly quiet inside (and, I might add, very cosy). Time will tell how this will last through the ravages of the change in the climate. 

I was surprised to hear last week that the tides here in the Cumberland Sound are second only to the Fundy tides in strength, height, and movement on the shoreline.Like home on the Fundy Shore ...there have been more than a few unwitting tourists stranded when the tides suddenly rush to the high tide mark. 

  

Here is another sign of spring in the north, which I know is 'head-scratcher' for any Qallunaat (southerner): This photo was taken at 10:30 PM. It is a very large spring puddle where children in the neighbourhood play for hours some with little homemade boats ....sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. Watching children play outside here is a fascination for me since we don't see so much of this anymore at home. My thoughts often drift back to the hours we spent playing 'hide and seek' in the dewy summer dusk; playing in the stream behind our house in Afton; the days spent at Bonvie's wharf learning how to swim; and the sun, like warm honey, on our backs as we picked blueberries on our way home for supper in August (whoops ...catching hell for being late for supper with blue-stained lips and tongues from our berry picking while Mom frantically worried whether King Neptune and the sea had claimed us during our afternoon swim).

I can't help but wonder if the innocent play of the children here in the North is giving way to the electronic scourge of, shall we say, progress? The iPod, the iPod touch, and game machines are replacing the older games and toys. Next year there may be cellphone service here and, as Northrup Frye once said, " ...we ask what this can do for us before looking at what it can undo in our culture." By the time we think to look at it, it has already changed us. I don't know whether that is good or bad.

Coming back to the original intent of this blog, ie Yogic reflections, I would leave you with a counter balance to change and progress in Marshall McLuhan's observation that "We are moving into the future looking at the present through a rear view mirror."  Here it is .....Simple .....Take a few moments at the beginning and end of the day to sit and just BE;  notice the breath and be in stillness. ....notice your thoughts ..but don't get 'on the train'.....breathe in the word JUST and exhale the word THIS .... just this .... just this .... just this ....

Love and light
Chris